Tool 19. KNOWLEDGE & CONTINUOUS LEARNING

About This Tool

As the world's industrial base continues its shift to a knowledge industry, we'll see more organizations fall victim to, or capitalize on, their capabilities around knowledge and continuous learning. It has already become a concern for companies that are highly decentralized or want to be more centralized, and those going through major business transitions like mergers, acquisitions, spin-offs, and global expansion. The need for this capability will further intensify as baby-boomers retire, free agents leave, competitors raid each other's top talent, and companies use contingent workers to avoid hiring permanent employees. Clearly, organizations will need to take a more deliberate approach to managing and transferring knowledge.

This tool isn't about technology, and it's not about data. It's about people, the processes that connect them to one another and to the company, and, the way they turn knowledge into know-how. It's less about capturing and managing knowledge, and more about sharing, transferring, and learning from that sharing. Some companies have found this challenge to be too overwhelming and directed their energy and resources to other, more solvable challenges. Others have continued chipping away at it. This tool is based on some of the steps they've found to be most effective and doable.

Using This Tool

The tool is divided into four areas: Leadership & Culture, Process, Structure, and People. The four areas are very inter-related and may overlap somewhat. Each area contains numerous steps or actions companies have taken to build their capability in knowledge and continuous learning. While some of the steps are rather broad and more strategic, most of them are quite specific and operational. Although they're presented here in an assessment format, it's unlikely that any single organization has done or could do all of these steps. They are intended to be more of a menu for you to consider and chose from among the various alternatives.

The area of knowledge and learning is very intangible, and it's hard for people to readily see and demonstrate the business impact of it. So, it's suggested that this tool not be used as a broad change formula that's laid on top of all the other everyday priorities already underway. Rather, begin your focus by picking a few key steps that can be readily embedded in the employee's existing work routines. Once those steps begin to take root within the organization, you can build from there by incorporating additional steps. Like so many other change efforts, this one is best approached as an evolutionary process.

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